


Our past is made from stained glass

by prayforpiett



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Body Horror, Dark Academia, Darth Vader Redemption, Eldritch, Multi, Mystery, Skywalker Family Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 19:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21463456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prayforpiett/pseuds/prayforpiett
Summary: Long-buried secrets resurface between the walls of the Aristotle Academy when the new semester starts. The remnants of old tragedies linger in the autumnal air, and strange eyes watch from the shadows. It seems like it's up to Luke to uncover the mysteries before disaster strikes again. As he tries to navigate the spiderweb of lies and half-truths, he might even make some unexpected discoveries about his own family...
Relationships: Leia Organa & Darth Vader, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker/Original Character(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59





	Our past is made from stained glass

**Author's Note:**

> Or rather "In which Luke is oblivious and meets some new people"

Luke’s footsteps echoed seemingly too loud than what was possible in a hall filled with people. He clutched his books tighter to his chest as he noticed from the corner of his eye some of the older students staring at him. He knew what they were thinking. He was no stranger to the scornful glances and whispers behind his back. His second-hand clothes were hanging from his thin frame, and he was suddenly oh so aware of the patches on his coat. Everything about him screamed that he didn’t belong here.  
  
The Aristotle Academy was only for the elite, the few chosen who would become the next great minds of the world. Mostly, it was for the golden boys and girls who were groomed for greatness from childhood. He saw the pictures of the most successful former students in the Academy’s brochure. Famous politicians, best-seller writers, brilliant scientists and engineers smiled at him knowingly from the pages. Their eyes full of promises of a better life, but their hushed voices whispering that Luke will never make it.  
  
Despite it all, here he was, trying to hold his head high as Aunt Beru told him to do so. He wanted to go to the Aristotle Academy since he was a child but now, he felt like the building was going to swallow him whole. It was nothing like what he had imagined, yet it also felt strangely familiar as if the Academy was a forgotten lullaby from his childhood. Every note was familiar, yet the song was nothing like what he thought it’d sound like. It was quite frankly terrifying.  
  
His breathing hitched as a redhead flashed a smile at him while passing next to him on the corridor. Her teeth seemed just a little bit too sharp to be human. Dumbfounded he turned around to catch a glimpse of her again but she disappeared in the crowd. He slowly blinked and shook his head. This nervousness was getting the worst out of him. When he was on edge, his mind always started to conjure up unwanted images of things that obviously didn’t exist. The psychologists just shook their head and told him that his imagination was too vivid. Sometimes he was prescribed a few pills but mostly it was just an absent-minded pat on the shoulder and he was good to go.  
  
He tried to fight it on his own. He tried thought-stopping techniques, counting backwards but nothing really helped. On the bad days, the world seemed just broken and strange, and he felt like nothing was real. The shadows grew longer, the wind seemed to whisper warnings in his ears and people moved strangely like marionette puppets.  
  
Aunt Beru told him that it ran in the family and his father had the same problem. Usually he was glad when someone told him how much he was like Anakin Skywalker, but he would have been glad if he was spared of this particular trait. It made his life a lot more complicated but the thought that his father went through the same experience provided some comfort. It was a bittersweet irony that Luke was here, struggling with the same old demons, between the walls of the same university that his father went to.  
  
He was suddenly pulled from his musings as a hand grabbed his wrist. It belonged to a small, petite girl, but her grip was surprisingly strong. She wore her milk chocolate coloured hair in an elaborate braid and was dressed in a brown checkered skirt and a white turtleneck sweater. She was beautiful although there was a strictness to her that he couldn’t quite identify.  
  
“You are going in the wrong way. The engineering classroom is in the Glass Hall,” said the girl.  
  
“Oh. Thanks, I guess, but how do you know that I study engineering?” he asked confused.  
  
She smiled. „From your books. My boyfriend, Han, takes the same class.”  
  
Suddenly embarrassed, he looked down at the books that he was still clutching. Well, it was rather obvious if it was pointed out like this.  
  
“I owe you one, it would have been embarrassing to be late from my first class. By the way, I’m Luke. Luke Lars,” he said with a nervous smile.  
  
When he was younger, he resented Uncle Owen for changing his birth name but now he understood that it was for his protection. The name Skywalker would raise too many unwanted questions. It would be a standing invitation for noisy journalists. His father’s name still felt more like his own, but there was nothing that could be done about this.  
  
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Luke Lars. I’m Leia Organa.”  
  
“The pleasure is mutual. Hey, if your boyfriend is taking engineering classes, do you know anything about the professors there? Sorry for asking, I just . . . I just don’t want to screw this up. I mean I worked really hard to get here. Sorry. I didn’t mean that in a pretentious way, but--”  
  
Great, now he was babbling. At least Leia didn’t seem to mind it too much, she just simply raised an eyebrow.  
  
“You mean Vader? You weren’t in the freshman camp, were you? The older students there told us all about him. He is some kind of local celebrity although he surely doesn’t want any of the fame. He is a genius but he has an awful personality. He notoriously hates teaching and every single one of his students. His classes are the hardest and half of his student have one mental breakdown per month. Nobody knows why he is still teaching here when he obviously doesn’t want to be here.”  
  
“That... doesn’t sound too promising.”  
  
“And you are putting it mildly. I know that he is a genius and his students who actually get to graduation are the elite of the engineering world but still, I don’t envy the people who actually have to deal with him. It's rumoured that the headmaster likes him too much to simply let him go which is a wholly absurd con-”  
  
“Wait. The headmaster?”  
  
“Yeah, why?” she puzzled.  
  
The brochure didn’t talk about the headmaster and no matter how much he searched on the Internet, he simply couldn’t find their name or anything about them. He even asked some of the former students he found online about them, but they had just shrugged it off. He supposed it was a tradition to not really mention them. Every school had its own quirks and this one was still less weird than his high school’s. Still, before he didn’t have time to elaborate because the university's famous clock -apparently unconcerned with the students' social life- chimed cruelly, indicating that it was ten o’clock.  
  
“Sorry, I have to go and I think you should be going too if you don’t want to be late,” said Leia with an apologetical smile.  
  
“Yeah, you’re right. I guess we will talk more later.”  
  
“We will. Oh and try not to stare at Vader’s scars. They said he hates that. Bye!”  
  
She was gone before he could even open his mouth to ask what she meant by that. It was another mystery waiting to be solved, he thought. It couldn’t get any complicated, could it?  
  
Following Leia’s advice, he strode to the Glass Hall. Even he could find the way there because it was the most famous part of the university complex. As its name indicated, the Hall didn’t have a proper roof. Instead, a large stained-glass dome sat on the top of the oakwood walls. When the sun was shining, it gleamed in the most amazing colours. At least, this is what the brochure and the Wikipedia said. He hadn’t had the chance to see it yet, so he was looking forward to it.  
  
When he finally got to the Glass Hall, he had to stop himself from openly gaping at the dome. Nothing could have prepared him for this sight. The sunlight almost seemed to caress the delicate pattern of a young woman on the glass. She wore a long, blue dress that reminded him of the ocean as if the waves were somehow weaved into a cloth. She had small, white flowers in her dark brown curls that framed her face just the right way. Her eyes were closed but he had a feeling that if she’d open them, she’d be smiling at him. It wouldn’t be a happy smile, but a soft and bittersweet one.  
  
His throat inexplicably tightened as he noticed something on the picture that he had overlooked earlier. The woman was pregnant. Her hands rested on her belly like she was caressing it and there was a small japor snippet between her fingers. Someone must have really loved her.  
  
He forced himself to look away. It didn’t do any good for him, standing here and wondering about a woman who may or may not have existed at all. The only thing he’d achieve is that he’d be late from his lesson. Still, he stole one last glance at her before he entered the building and made his way to his classroom.  
  
It seemed like the hierarchy was already set before he even arrived. Two girls and two boys sat in the first row, next to each other although there were plenty of other seats there. They were all staring at the newcomer, and if Luke looked hard enough he could almost see a predatory gleam in their eyes that made him uneasy. He realised that one of the girls was the redhead he had seen earlier in the corridor. She smiled at him again, and he looked away before he could see her teeth.  
  
Although this wasn’t high school anymore, people always loved to tear each other apart no matter how old they were. He already had his fair share of animosity, so he wanted to avoid conflicts here. Unfortunately, trouble seemed to follow him everywhere he went as the predatory glances from the other students indicated. He would try to stay in the background, but he had a feeling that it's not going to be that easy.  
  
After the Wolf Pack, as he named the first group, the students were loosely scattered in the room. Most of them were chatting quietly but there were some loners who decided to keep their distance. He thought for a moment about where he should sit and at the end, he chose a seat in the last row, next to a brown-haired man. He seemed to be a few years older than Luke and he wore simple black trousers and a wrinkled white shirt. He was rolling two golden dice between his fingers with the expertise of an old gambler.  
  
“Hi! I’m Luke Lars. Is it alright if I sit here? I mean I don’t want to bother you.”  
  
He looked at Luke with a carefully constructed mask of boredom, but his amusement was peeking through it.  
  
“I’m Han Solo. Sure, you can sit here kiddo if you behave yourself.”  
  
“You wouldn’t happen to be a boyfriend to a girl named Leia would you?” Luke asked.  
  
Han raised an eyebrow. “For someone so new here, word gets around fast.”  
  
Luke had no idea what Han was talking about. “I met her on the way here. She helped me with directions and said her boyfriend took these classes as well.”  
  
Han’s face seemed to relax with that explanation. “Ahh. So I see you’ve talked with her highness.”  
  
Luke couldn’t stop the small snort that came out. It was an odd nickname, but who knew why she had it. Han leaned over in his seat and stared at Luke. A smile grew on his face.  
  
“You don’t know, do you?” he asked.  
  
“Know?”  
  
“And she didn’t tell ya,” Han said as he leaned back in his seat. “She’s a princess. Her parents are ruling a small country back in Europe. She’s well known around here.”  
  
Luke suddenly went red. He knew that some pretty famous people went to the Academy, but even in his wildest dreams he never thought that there might be royalty here.  
  
“Then I just made an idiot out of myself before a literal princess.”  
  
“It happens to the best of us,” said Han with a grin.  
  
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” he complained.  
  
“It wasn’t supposed to. Where are you from anyway? You look like some kind of farm kid.”  
  
“Like you’d know a lot of farm ki-”  
  
The conversation was cut short by the door opening with a loud creak. A man stormed in. Luke had to look away to prevent himself from staring. Vader didn’t simply have a few scars. He was covered in them. Wounds were scattered on his deathly pale skin, even on his bald scalp. It looked like blood spilt on freshly fallen snow. Luke swallowed and elbowed Han to stop him from staring as the man’s gaze found them. Their eyes met and he realised, they were the same clear blue like the sky back at home. He suddenly felt a burst of homesickness, but then the moment was over. The professor’s gaze shifted, and Luke felt like he could breathe again. He really needed to take his pills when he got home because this was getting ridiculous.  
  
Vader put down his belongings on the table and continued to scrutinize the students, almost daring them to flinch. Some of them shifted uncomfortably and only the Wolf Pack met his gaze directly.  
  
“I will make it clear, I am not here to waste your time and you are not here to waste mine. You are here to learn and nothing more. As such, I have no tolerance for idiocy and disruptive behaviour in this class. Those who don’t obey my rules and instructions will be dealt with accordingly.”  
  
His voice was raspy and quiet, yet every word was infused with such authority and power that no one could ignore. The utter silence that followed his speech was the undeniable evidence for it.  
  
“We are going to skip the introductions and start with a test to get an accurate reading of your skills. It will have no consequences for the semester but those who fail are strongly encouraged to think about their career choices. It would be wise if they chose a different course because I accept nothing less than the very best and they won’t be able to succeed here.”  
  
Luke hadn’t prepared for anything like this and now panic was surging through him. What kind of test? What in the seven hells? On the first lesson? What kind of teacher was Vader? He was not the only with such thoughts he realised as he exchanged a glance with Han and looked around the room. The other looked just as panicked as him. Except, of course, the Wolf Pack who seemed just as confident as ever. He glared at the back of their heads like that would achieve anything.  
  
He was sure he is going to fail. He should start thinking about what he was going to tell Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They worked so hard to pay for his tuition even with all of the financial aid he received, and his heart sank at the thought of letting them down like this. He would try his damned best though. And if he failed . . . Well he would deal with it somehow.  
  
The test papers were passed around excruciatingly slowly as if the world was stuck in honey. It seemed like an eternity before he finally got one.  
  
“What the fuck?” he heard Han mutter as he stared at his test paper.  
  
Luke looked at his paper and blinked. Then blinked again. The equations on the paper formed swirling patterns that he couldn’t quite make out and made his head hurt. It was like gazing into a sandstorm. The numbers were dancing before his eyes like grains of sand in the wind. He took a deep breath to calm down but it didn’t help. 

Why did his mind had to play this trick on him now? Why couldn’t it find a better damn time? He tried to trace the order of the equations with his forefinger but he still couldn’t find the start. He was about to give up when the numbers slowly started forming sequences. Suddenly, the patterns were almost burned into his mind. It was like his brain was being rewired. He let out a quiet “oh”, then grinned. This was going to be a child’s play.

**Author's Note:**

> I have to thank Silverdaye for the betaing! Check out her works, she is amazing. ;) 
> 
> Also, thanks everyone on the Discord server for the support!


End file.
